In the Cool of the Garden Pt. 3 // Luke 24 // Ryan Murphy

This week, Ryan Patrick Murphy shares a message from Luke 24:13–35. Anchored in the story of two disciples walking the road to Emmaus, Ryan invites the Table Boston community into a deeper, more daily encounter with God through Scripture — making the case that the Bible is not a supplement to the Christian life but the very soil it grows in.

Ryan walks through five practical keys to hearing God's voice in Scripture, drawn straight from the disciples' experience with the risen Jesus. The first is simply to read the Bible every day — not as a medicine we reach for in crisis, but as a vitamin for daily nourishment. The second is to read widely across the whole Bible, invoking A.W. Tozer's conviction that "nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian" and framing Scripture as a five-act redemptive story that we cannot faithfully live in unless we know all four acts that came before us. Ryan then calls the community to read not for information but for transformation — to slow down and sit with whatever phrase or passage stirs the heart, pray it, memorize it, carry it through the day. Fourth, Ryan draws from the Emmaus meal itself to show that Scripture is meant to be lived and discussed in community, not consumed in isolation. Finally, he challenges listeners to obey what they already know — that no prophetic word is needed to love the neighbor, forgive the enemy, or trust God with what we have.

Ryan anchors the whole message in Karl Barth's concept of the "threefold Word of God" — the living Word (Jesus himself), the written Word (Scripture), and the preached Word (the teaching of the local church) — showing how all three are meant to work together. The written word, he argues, is not a secondary spiritual tool; it is a doorway into encounter with the living Word. Just as the disciples' hearts burned while Jesus opened the Scriptures to them — even before they recognized him — so the Bible remains the primary and irreplaceable way God speaks today.

Ultimately, this sermon is an invitation to fall back in love with the Bible — not out of duty, but because we love the One who wrote it. Ryan closes by praying for renewed hunger, especially for those who have grown cynical or have been wounded by ways Scripture has been misused, asking God to tenderize hearts and release grace for people to open the Word again — in the mornings, on commutes, in community, and at the dinner table.